Aligned Marketing Blog

Marketing executive, Steve Hartkopf shares all in this informative yet personable blog.

What Can You Do About Social Media?

Steve Hartkopf - Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Social Media To-Do List

You may be confused about social media (SM), many business people are. There are literally hundreds of social media sites and sorting through them seems impossible. There’s Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, etc., and then there’s the ones with unusual names, StumbleUpon or Posterous, to name two. No doubt, there are too many for a non-professional to evaluate and, since most SM sites are awash with non-customers for most businesses, why would anyone in a traditional marketing role take the time to review all those communities. So what should marketing professionals do about social media? Here’s my take:

1. Target your activities:

Information overload saps efficiency and limits productivity, that’s why many of us hate email. Take the time to investigate the top 25-50 social media sites and see if your company, your products, your competitors or your key industry words are prominent. Do a generic Google search for the same terms (company, product, competitors and you) just to see if you’ve missed anything. If any of the social media networks you evaluate have activity around your company, products or competitors, then join and monitor those networks. This approach let’s you focus on what’s important and weed out most of the “social media noise.”

2. Know who is talking about your brand:

You need to know who’s talking about you online and social media is the perfect mechanism. There are companies, such as Aligned Marketing (yes, that’s a shameless plug), that can break down the demographics of the people talking about your brand by gender, age and geography. If the demographics match your target audience then, again, you’ll need to pay close attention to those conversations and be ready to engage quickly, which brings us to the next point.

3. Engage the conversation:

It’s better to be proactive than it is to be reactive. Joining the online conversation allows you to speak directly with your target audience, your customers and your detractors. You can monitor the conversation. You can’t manage the conversation, per se, but you can insert your own perspective and, hopefully, influence the direction of the conversation. Engaging gives you the opportunity to react, share your side and, perhaps, steer a negative comment into a customer service success story before it becomes a trend.

4. Reporting:

Use your social media research and the available tools to capture relevant information. Organize that information and use traditional reporting tools, such as charts, graphs and PowerPoint, to combine both qualitative and quantitative analysis, to inform your organization. As the data increases you may find that even your most ardent critics will realize that spending a portion of your marketing budget to monitor online conversations is wise.

I may be wrong but, like it or not, I don’t think this stuff is going away anytime soon.

Steve

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Is Link Building for You? Part 2

Steve Hartkopf - Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Part 2 of 3:

Now that you've spend a good bit of time and energy getting your site linked on a couple hundred directories, it's time to roll up your sleeves and really get to work. You're excited, I can tell.

2. Intermediate Tactics
Intermediate tactics require more time and typically a financial investment. The effort is worth it since this is when the multiplier effect (viral marketing) can take place and take you to unexpected heights.

Intermediate Tactics are (1) article and press release writing and marketing and (2) advanced networking. Both of these tactics require you to create relevant content that will appeal to your market and, potentially, be worthy of being shared, of going viral and the ability to create meaningful relationships. Viral, in marketing terms, means it spreads, like a virus. In other words you send me an article or a press release that is so compelling and so interesting that I take the time out of my busy schedule to forward it to someone else. I spread it, they spread it, and so on and so on.

Creating that kind of content is not easy but here's the key: After you write your article or press release ask yourself this question, "Will this be shared?" If the answer is "Yes" then you completed the most difficult step. If the answer is "No" then you still have work to do. At first you may not be able to tell if your content is spread-worthy or not but, as with anything, you should get better over time and with effort, with practice. Writing content that is worthy of being shared is tough but, after that, things get easier since you can hire/rent the additional expertise you need.

The process of getting your articles syndicated, spread across the net, and your press releases submitted to online outlets is something I suggest you outsource. Article syndicating services and press release service providers are two of the fastest growing services you'll find online and, as such, the providers are improving the quality of their services and lowering their costs. I'll leave it to you to find find the best firm to meet your specific needs but feel free to contact me directly if you want a recommendation. Most of the press release services charge a fee, which can range from $50.00 to several hundred dollars, monthly subscription packages are also popular. Free services exist but the results may be less than you desire.

Hiring an expert to help you fine-tune your content, coordinate an online PR firm and develop a structured SEO program is wise if you're serious about being successful because all these tasks require a relatively high level of specialized talent to be effective. Here's what I used to say to my bosses when I was in Corporate America and they told me to do something outside our department's area of expertise, "Sure, we can do it ourselves but I'm concerned because amateur work usually produces amateur results." Or, "part-time work produces part-time results." They loved getting that kind of feedback. Yeah, right! But it's true, hire a pro if you want professional results, the benefits outweigh the expense. Besides, even if you hire a pro there's still so much that you can and should do on your own.

Link building is like cold calling in sales. Persistence alone will produce some results. But networking to secure referrals and giving value before asking for value are the best ways to secure new opportunities and, eventually, new clients. To maximize effectiveness, build personal relationships with webmasters, bloggers and other people who you want posting a link to your website on their website. The way to do this is to make yourself valuable and, therefore, visible to the right people. It's self promotion through added value, a win-win.

A good way to start is by reading other people's blogs and leaving (valuable) comments. Typically what will happen is they will start reading your blog (you must have one!) and leaving comments in return. Social media sites such as Twitter, StumbleUpon and Digg are also great relationship tools. You simply point (ReTweet, for example) people to content you think they'll find interesting or useful. Again, you're adding value and as your relationships grows the opportunity, or mutual self-interest, in providing each other an inbound link will surface. Depending on the strength of your relationship this might take days, weeks or months.

From a link building perspective, if the relationship is solid enough and based on mutual respect and appropriate self-interest, you may even be asked to post a guest blog on their site. If that happens, jump on it and ask permission to link your guest post to relevant links as well as your website and blog. Those links will open you up to a whole new audience and will also improve your keyword rankings on the search engines.

If done correctly these Intermediate Tactics - writing great content, outsourcing submissions and building new meaningful relationships - will significantly increase the links to your site and move you up in search engine rankings. In addition, if your articles and press releases are linked tightly to a sound keyword strategy, the increase in search engine rankings for specific keywords and phrases will skyrocket. As Stephen Covey says, begin with the end in mind.

We're not done yet but now have a blueprint so get going. Monday we'll discuss some really Advanced Tactics.

Steve

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